ESPN Bowl Picks: Thoughts?

[TheRef]

AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL

Aschoff: The Bulldogs pulled out back-to-back overtime wins to get into this game. It wasn't a pretty season, but Dan Mullen has now guided his team to a fourth straight bowl game for the first time in school history. While the Bulldogs are riding high, Rice has won nine out of 10 and has the running game to frustrate Mississippi State's defense. ... Rice 24, Mississippi State 21

Low: Having a healthy Dak Prescott will be huge for Mississippi State, which also happens to be playing its best defense of the season. The Bulldogs won't completely shut down Rice's running game, but will slow it down enough to get the Owls out of their comfort zone. There will be a ton of maroon in the stands at the Liberty Bowl, and their short trip back home will be a happy one. ... Mississippi State 28, Rice 24

[smootness]

Part of me thinks this game will be tougher than State fans think, and part of me thinks our defense keeps playing like it did at the end of the season and we stomp them. So who knows.

But it is in no way surprising that Aschoff picked us to lose.

[sleepy dawg]

Really, I don't blame anyone for picking us to lose. Yes, we played some really good teams close, but played some really bad teams even closer. We are not an incredibly easy team to predict.

[smootness]

We only beat BG by one, but 1) they are a good team and won a better league than Rice did; and 2) if we played like we did against Bama/OM on defense in that one, we would have won it by 2+ TDs fairly easily.

[cubswillwinitonedaydawg]

I think Low pretty much nailed it. Having Dak is huge, we're playing our best defense of the season, we'll slow down but not stop their running game, and it will be like a home game with all the maroon in the stands. Hoping for a more lopsided and comfortable score, but his could be pretty accurate.

I see both did not put a score that would have us making a field goal. Very smart on their part.

[Jack Lambert]

I think Low pretty much nailed it. Having Dak is huge, we're playing our best defense of the season, we'll slow down but not stop their running game, and it will be like a home game with all the maroon in the stands. Hoping for a more lopsided and comfortable score, but his could be pretty accurate.

I see both did not put a score that would have us making a field goal. Very smart on their part.

I think we stop their running game cold after their first series because I don't think they have faced a run defense like our all season and they don't pass all the great.

[Majors42]

I love all these guys picking against us. I hope it drives the line down. When I load up in the morning, I would love to see it down to around +4 or +5.

[thunderclap]

Me too.

[Coach 57]

This is coming from two guys who had us losing the EB?

We won't STOP their running game. But we will make them one dimensional! They have NO answer for Dak.

[BogeyGolfer]

AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL

Aschoff: The Bulldogs pulled out back-to-back overtime wins to get into this game. It wasn't a pretty season, but Dan Mullen has now guided his team to a fourth straight bowl game for the first time in school history. While the Bulldogs are riding high, Rice has won nine out of 10 and has the running game to frustrate Mississippi State's defense. ... Rice 24, Mississippi State 21

Low: Having a healthy Dak Prescott will be huge for Mississippi State, which also happens to be playing its best defense of the season. The Bulldogs won't completely shut down Rice's running game, but will slow it down enough to get the Owls out of their comfort zone. There will be a ton of maroon in the stands at the Liberty Bowl, and their short trip back home will be a happy one. ... Mississippi State 28, Rice 24

Close early... We pull away in 2nd half. We have one of the best fronts in the country. They WILL NOT be able to run on us... We win by 3 TD's...
45-21

[Coach 57]

Bogey, those are my feelings exactly.

[justwin]

Not surprisingly, Ladarius Perkins grinds out 60 yards on 21 carries.



AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL

Aschoff: The Bulldogs pulled out back-to-back overtime wins to get into this game. It wasn't a pretty season, but Dan Mullen has now guided his team to a fourth straight bowl game for the first time in school history. While the Bulldogs are riding high, Rice has won nine out of 10 and has the running game to frustrate Mississippi State's defense. ... Rice 24, Mississippi State 21

Low: Having a healthy Dak Prescott will be huge for Mississippi State, which also happens to be playing its best defense of the season. The Bulldogs won't completely shut down Rice's running game, but will slow it down enough to get the Owls out of their comfort zone. There will be a ton of maroon in the stands at the Liberty Bowl, and their short trip back home will be a happy one. ... Mississippi State 28, Rice 24

[smootness]

Can we all agree to stop with the shots at Perkins? I know they're ultimately criticisms of the coaching staff (and I agree that we could have used our RBs better), but they also end up being shots at Perkins that are both undeserved and largely incorrect.

He's a lot better than a lot of our own fans want to believe.

This was not his best year, obviously, but it was marred by injury, and he could never get a steady dose of carries when healthy. He has run for 20+ carries 4 times in his career, all last year, and in none of them did he run more than 25 times. His yardage in those games? 171, 110, 100, and 125. What a terrible bum.

[sleepy dawg]

I was more referring to Kentucky and Arkansas.
Also, I don't think the MAC is an obvious better conference that CUSA at this point. They are both pretty crappy conferences. BG is likely the best team between the 2 conferences, but looking at the conferences overall, they are pretty equal.

[RougeDawg]

Conference USA is the garbage of garbage. The only decent TE's have jumped ship to other conferences. We will stomp rice into the Liberty Bowl turf.

[msstate7]

AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL

Aschoff: The Bulldogs pulled out back-to-back overtime wins to get into this game. It wasn't a pretty season, but Dan Mullen has now guided his team to a fourth straight bowl game for the first time in school history. While the Bulldogs are riding high, Rice has won nine out of 10 and has the running game to frustrate Mississippi State's defense. ... Rice 24, Mississippi State 21

Low: Having a healthy Dak Prescott will be huge for Mississippi State, which also happens to be playing its best defense of the season. The Bulldogs won't completely shut down Rice's running game, but will slow it down enough to get the Owls out of their comfort zone. There will be a ton of maroon in the stands at the Liberty Bowl, and their short trip back home will be a happy one. ... Mississippi State 28, Rice 24

Bump for Aschoff's unbelievable picking ability**

[maroonmania]

How about the 'expert' Todd McShay who said Rice would beat us for the reason that we wouldn't be able to stop their running game. McShay probably hadn't watched a down of any of our games all year.